FDP on migration and integration

The FDP wants to integrate refugee children and teenagers through lasting German-language support at schools and raise the age limit for intensive support to 21. It sees multilingualism as an asset and wants to expand heritage-language teaching.

Refugee children and teenagers should get German support for a long time. The special support should be possible up to age 21. Today it ends at 18. The FDP also wants to strengthen lessons in the family's language.

The party opposes lowering standards further, for example through larger intensive classes. Literacy teaching should get more room, also outside dedicated courses. In dual vocational training, extra support should make late entry and graduation possible. The FDP wants to examine how heritage-language teaching can be developed and whether Turkish and Greek could be offered as foreign languages.

The FDP backs an immigration law with a points system modeled on Canada's and wants Hesse to set up a central immigration office for skilled workers. It points to the shortage of workers and skilled labor, which it sees as a major threat to the state's economy.

Hesse lacks many skilled workers. The FDP wants more well-trained people from abroad to come. A points system should be used for this. One central office should handle these cases. Applications should be processed faster.

The central office is meant to take pressure off local immigration offices. Hurdles in recognizing qualifications and in access to training occupations are to be lowered. Agencies are to be better equipped and their processes digitized so that applications are decided faster. The FDP also relies on better education and vocational training. According to the platform, anyone who commits to the values of the Basic Law and is willing to work hard should have a future in Hesse.

The FDP expects everyone who immigrates to accept the free democratic basic order without reservation. Those unwilling to do so should not be able to stay permanently; deportations are to be carried out consistently and the list of safe countries of origin expanded.

People who come to Germany should accept the rules of democracy. Those who do not should not be allowed to stay forever. The FDP wants deportations to be carried out consistently. More countries should count as safe countries of origin.

The platform frames this under the principle of "demand and support." For the FDP, demanding means accepting the basic order as the foundation of political, social and economic life together. The list of safe countries of origin is to be expanded soon. On the support side, the platform names early, easy-access language courses, language tandems and help with navigating German bureaucracy.

The FDP wants to strengthen projects through which citizens shape integration locally. The Hessian Integration Prize is to be awarded more widely, and places where people can meet are to be expanded in order to reduce prejudice.

Integration happens locally, for example in clubs and schools. The FDP wants to honor such projects more. More projects should get the Hessian Integration Prize. Meeting places like a culture café should also get support.

The integration prize is to have more winners, with the prize money redistributed accordingly. Projects that already receive state funding are to be excluded from the award. The platform names clubs, parties, culture cafés and bike repair workshops as meeting places; people who start such offers are to be encouraged and supported. Gaps in integration that the FDP says arose from the COVID restrictions are to be closed with targeted measures across the state.

The FDP sees learning German early as the most important building block of integration and wants a broad range of courses whose use is monitored more closely. In addition, every person who immigrates should be required to have basic knowledge of the political system and fundamental rights.

The FDP wants many ways to learn German. It wants to check more closely that people really attend the courses. Language apps should help too. Every immigrant should have to know something about politics and basic rights in Germany.

Language-learning apps are to be integrated into language acquisition; existing offers from private providers or the Goethe-Institut are to be promoted better among immigrants and refugees, and their use in teaching is to be researched. The required knowledge should also cover ways to participate politically, for example through foreigners' advisory councils, and the platform also mentions women's and LGBTQ rights here. The FDP argues that a lack of knowledge about rights and duties can hinder integration and participation. International cultural festivals such as a "Day of Nations" are to be funded as a way to convey this information.

The FDP wants all new arrivals to be allowed to work right away, regardless of whether they are likely to be able to stay. Foreign qualifications are to be recognized faster and more flexibly; the work permit is not to create any right to remain.

People who are new in Germany should be allowed to work right away. This should apply to everyone, even if they may not be allowed to stay. Foreign degrees should be recognized faster. But the work permit gives no right to stay.

The condition is that those concerned cooperate in establishing their identity. School, vocational and university qualifications from the country of origin are to be reviewed quickly, taking useful further training into account. For refugees, the FDP wants targeted support for further education and training so they have a better chance of entering the labor market.